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Time Machine users who want to set a time for backups

Apple_Robert

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 21, 2012
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In a van down by the river
If you are limited on drive space or don't have a real need for Time Machine backing up every hour, consider using "BackupScheduler: Time Editor. It is a paid app ($6.99) that allows you to set the time interval between Time Machine backups from 10 minutes to 1 week.

I have been using it for years and have been pleased with it. I am not affiliated with the Developer in any way. I know a lot of people use Time Machine and thought this post might help others.

apps.apple.com

‎Backup Scheduler: Time Editor

‎Backup Scheduler for Time Machine lets you control when Time Machine backs up your data Supports: macOS 10.11 - Ventura + App features: • Time based schedule: Backup starts in specified intervals (10 minutes - 1 week) or at the earliest possible time • Idle based schedule: If computer is...
apps.apple.com
 
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tosbsas said:
you might take a look at this

TimeMachineEditor

tclementdev.com tclementdev.com
its free and does the same
Click to expand...
I use this and love it. My external drive is loud and my wife hates it when it backs up when she's on a video call (which is fair, because it's an ugly sound). So I schedule backups for a couple times a day and now everything is good.

What I like about TimeMachineEditor is that once you run it the preferences are set and it doesn't have to be running at all. All it's really doing, AFAIK, is writing to some system preferences that tell Time Machine when to run. I believe you can do all this in the Terminal, but I prefer to have a nice UI on it so I don't screw something up :)
 
Monterey on an M1 doesn’t work with TimeMachineEditor. You have to give permissions to tmutil to get it to work. Works great on my intel 2018 mini running Mojave.
 
Last edited:
harriska2 said:
Yeah, you’re right. That said, some people aren’t comfy doing command line stuff.
Click to expand...
There's no command line stuff... if you read the TimeMachine Editor page, they explain what M1 users must do, which is:
  1. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access
  2. Click the "+" button
  3. Hit the cmd+shift+G shortcut and enter /usr/bin/tmutil in the field
  4. Click "Add"
At no point do you have to open the Terminal app.
 
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MacGizmo said:
There's no command line stuff... if you read the TimeMachine Editor page, they explain what M1 users must do, which is:
  1. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access
  2. Click the "+" button
  3. Hit the cmd+shift+G shortcut and enter /usr/bin/tmutil in the field
  4. Click "Add"
At no point do you have to open the Terminal app.
Click to expand...
Yup, you are right again. So I’ll rephrase. Some people want software to work without having to modify stuff. The modification is easy, but others may not think so. That said, computer illiterate people that can’t change permissions likely don’t care when TM fires off. ??‍♀️
 
Makisupa Policeman said:
I tried installing and my computer warned me that the app can’t be installed because it can’t verify if it contains malicious software, saying the app needs to me updated. ?
Click to expand...

Go into Settings, Security & Privacy, and the app should appear in the bottom section under Allow Apps.

The app should be listed there if you tried to run it recently, and you'll have to click the lock, enter your pw/TouchID to get it to run.

1639500311278.png
 
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